Light control film (LCF), also known as light collimating film, is an optical film that is configured to regulate the transmission of light. Various LCFs are known, and typically include a light transmissive film having a plurality of parallel grooves wherein the grooves are formed of a light-absorbing material.
LCFs can be placed proximate a display surface, image surface, or other surface to be viewed. Typically, at normal incidence, (i.e., 0 degree viewing angle) where a viewer is looking at an image through the LCF in a direction that is perpendicular to the film surface, the image is viewable. As the viewing angle increases, the amount of image light transmitted through the LCF decreases until a viewing cutoff angle is reached where substantially all the image light is blocked by the light-absorbing material and the image is no longer viewable. This can provide privacy to a viewer by blocking observation by others that are outside a typical range of viewing angles.
LCFs can be prepared by molding and ultraviolet curing a polymerizable resin on a polycarbonate substrate. Such LCFs are commercially available from 3M Company, St. Paul, Minn., under the trade designation “3M™ Filters for Notebook Computers and LCD Monitors”.